Sunburns and Smooches
by ladybug114
Summary: Riku gets a sunburn, Sora has a realization, and Kairi does all the work (as usual).


**A/N: originally posted on AO3 on December 29th, 2019, under the username ladybug114. Anyway, this fic takes place between kh2 and dream drop! started as just a short fluffy thing, but it got away from me a bit and turned into this realization/confession fic. I hope you enjoy, and please review!**

Riku has always been pale, is the thing.

As long as they can remember, parents and teachers have been making jokes about how the three of them form a perfect spectrum - Sora is the darkest, Riku is the palest, and Kairi is somewhere in between. No one quite knows how Riku has managed to stay so pale for so long, living on an island and spending almost all of his time outside, but it's a fact of life. Water is wet, the sky is blue, two plus two equals four, and Riku is pale.

It's an unusual look for the islands, unexpected that Riku has managed _not_ to tan in all his years there, but his skin tone isn't… unnatural.

Or, well, it wasn't.

Sora didn't know what Riku did during that year, the year Sora slept, and he didn't know exactly how the magic of Riku taking Ansem's form worked, but it was clear that Riku hadn't been taking care of himself. And he _definitely_ hadn't gotten any sun.

It was scary, a little bit, when they finally made it back to the island and Sora was able to really look at Riku for the first time in over a year. He was smiling, putting on a brave face for Kairi, but the image of Riku collapsing on the beach in the realm of darkness was going to be seared into Sora's memory for a long time. And he was _pale_\- with exhaustion or pain or pure lack of vitamin D, Sora wasn't sure, but it was probably a combination of all three.

They didn't really have time to talk, and they continued not having time to talk for a few days. They had to tell Kairi (and Donald and Goofy and the King) what had happened to Xemnas, they had to make sure those three got on their way to Disney Castle safely, they had to apologize to Kairi a few more times (and hug her a few more times than that), they had to field questions from concerned parents who had forgotten about them (in Sora's case) or thought they were dead (in Riku's). Eventually, though, things started to calm down, and they went back to the island. Their island.

They spent a few days there, the three of them, much quieter than in the old days, and the whole time, Sora found his gaze straying to Riku. He still walked a little unsteadily, his hair still hung over his face, and he was still so _pale_.

Until the day they met at the docks to row over to the island, and…

"Riku, you're _red_!" Sora exclaimed, the words coming out without him quite meaning them to.

Riku, if possible, got redder, ducking his head so that his hair covered even more of his face. He still needed a haircut, badly, but that was a conversation for another day. "Please don't talk about it," he muttered, "I'm in enough pain as it is."

"I don't think I've ever seen you sunburnt," Kairi said with a grin, leaning forward and pushing Riku's hair away for a better look.

Grumbling, Riku ducked his head away from her. "It's not a big deal, I'm just a little red, now can we _please_ get going?"

"Did you put sunscreen on today?" Kairi asked, her voice almost sing-song, the grin still stuck firmly on her face.

Sora laughed, nudging Riku with his shoulder. "Yeah, Riku, gotta make sure your poor delicate skin is protected."

"I give up," Riku exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm just going to row over there by myself, you guys can swim for all I care."

Riku was still muttering and grumbling, but as he bent down to start untying the rowboat, Sora could see a smile on his face. In the few days they'd been home, Sora hadn't seen Riku fully smile even once. Glancing to the side, he could tell that Kairi had noticed too, and the two of them grinned at each other.

Kairi leaned over to help Riku untying the boat and said, "Sorry, Riku."

"It's fine," Riku said, rolling his eyes. "I'm just embarrassed enough without you two bothering me about it."

Sora stepped forward next to Kairi, whispering loudly enough for both of them to hear, "We need to be nicer, Kairi. Looks like Riku's ego is just as sensitive as his skin."

"Alright!" Riku said, standing up as Kairi and Sora both dissolved into laughter. "That's it, you guys have lost your boat privileges. I warned you."

Doubled over with laughter, tears in their eyes, Sora and Kairi only looked up in time to see Riku jumping into the now fully-untied boat and pushing himself away from the dock.

"Wait!" Kairi yelped, recovering quickly enough to dash to the end of the dock and pull herself into the boat. "Hurry, Sora!" she shouted back, still laughing.

Out of breath, Sora raced after her, but the boat had already pushed away by the time he reached the end of the dock. "This is so unfair!" he shouted, resigning himself to an uncomfortable boat ride before leaping into the water and swimming after them. The sound of Riku's laughter ahead of him almost made the swim worth it.

Almost.

* * *

Later, as the two of them sat on the edge of the woods under the shade of a tree, watching Kairi gather seashells in the distance, Riku picked absentmindedly at his now-peeling skin.

"Hey, stop that," Sora said, reaching up to smack Riku's hand away. "It's just going to hurt more if you peel it all off."

Rolling his eyes, Riku responded, "Thanks, mom."

Embarrassed, Sora flushed almost as red as Riku. "That's not…"

"I know," Riku laughed. "I don't mind, really. I think it's cute how much you worry about me."

"_Hey_," Sora protested, "It's not _cute_."

"Sure," Riku nodded with a grin, reaching over and ruffling Sora's hair. "Not cute at all."

Sora huffed, crossing his arms, but didn't protest too much. Riku was grinning, and laughing, and Sora didn't want to stop that from happening, especially not now.

They sat quietly for a couple of minutes, but soon Riku was reaching up to peel at his sunburnt skin again.

"Thought I told you not to do that," Sora said quietly, nudging him.

Riku grimaced, dropping his hand. "But it _itches_," he insisted, scrunching up his nose to prove his point.

It was… cute.

_Oh, shit, _Sora thought, _do I think Riku is cute? _Just a few minutes earlier, Riku had called _him_ cute, but that was just pointless teasing… right?

"Hey, earth to Sora," Riku said, waving a hand in front of Sora's face and cutting into his thoughts.

Sora flailed for a second, caught off guard, and then managed to muster up a smile. "Sorry," he said, trying desperately to compose himself, "got… lost in thought a little bit."

Riku hummed and nodded, accepting that, and quiet fell again.

Breathing out slowly, Sora tried to collect his thoughts. Okay, so he thought Riku was cute. Nothing weird about that; Riku had said it about him, too, after all. _But that was different_, Sora reminded himself.

Coming to a decision, Sora pushed himself to his feet. "I'm gonna go see how Kairi's doing," he said, mentally willing Riku to stay where he was. "See if there's anything cool out there today."

Thankfully, Riku yawned, waving Sora off with a hand. "No promises that I'll still be awake when you get back," he said with a smile, and Sora smiled back.

"If I need you to wake up, I'll just smack your sunburn!" Sora said brightly, needing to get one more jab in, just to see Riku laugh again.

But Riku just smiled lazily. "Nah, you wouldn't do that. You love me too much." Yawning again, he leaned back against the tree and shut his eyes, not waiting for Sora to respond.

Which was probably a good thing, because Sora had no idea _how_ to respond to that. Shaking his head to clear it, Sora jogged down to the beach, where Kairi now sat, looking out at the waves.

"Bored with Riku already?" she asked, looking up at him with a grin as he approached.

Sora laughed, sitting down in the sand next to her. "He's taking a nap up there, I think," he said, and as he looked out at the waves he couldn't help but remember sitting on another beach. "He's not… I don't think he's fully better, yet," he added, quieter.

Kairi hummed in agreement, leaning forward to doodle absentmindedly in the sand with her finger. "He went through a lot," she said after a moment, "not just the fight with Xemnas, at the end, but a whole year on his own." She brushed the sand clear and looked up at Sora again, her smile a little bit sadder. "It might take a while."

"Yeah," Sora said, hugging his knees to his chest. "I know."

There was quiet, then, broken only by the quiet crashing of waves in front of them and the faint movement of wind through the trees behind them.

"Kairi?" Sora asked, breaking the silence, finally feeling like he couldn't take it anymore.

"Hm?"

Sora fidgeted, rubbing sand between his fingers, trying to decide what conversation he wanted to have, and how to start it. "Did you used to have a crush on me?" he finally blurted out, mentally smacking himself as soon as the words left his mouth.

Kairi giggled, taken aback by the question. "Yeah, course I did. You just figure that out?"

"No, I…" Sora blushed, wishing he had started this conversation in literally any other way. "I thought I had a crush on you, too, but now I'm… I don't know."

"Ah," Kairi nodded, and it didn't seem like she was surprised at all. "Riku."

Sora gagged, choking on nothing. "_What?_"

"Oh, is this… not about Riku?"

"No, it…" Sora rubbed his face with a hand, sighing. "I don't… I don't know if it's about Riku, I guess."

Kairi hummed, thinking. "Well, before I interrupted, what were you going to ask?"

"What did it feel like?"

"Having a crush?" she asked, and when Sora nodded, she thought for a minute, tapping a finger against her chin. "I wanted to be with you all the time," she finally said, flushing a little. "I wanted you to notice when I did things, and I wanted to make you laugh, and I wanted to hold your hand, and sometimes I just wanted to look at you." She shrugged, still pink, and added, "It was a lot of little things like that. Things that made it just… a little bit more special than anything else."

Sora nodded slowly, thinking.

"Does that help?" Kairi asked, looking at him.

"Maybe," Sora sighed, flopping onto his back on the sand and putting his hands behind his head. "How did you know I was going to ask about Riku?"

"Sora," Kairi said gently, and Sora could hear the smile in her voice, "you're not the most subtle person I know."

Suddenly nervous, Sora pushed himself up on an elbow to look at her. "Do you… do you think Riku noticed anything?"

Kairi raised an eyebrow, but when Sora just blinked at her, she sighed and answered, "He is perhaps the only person more oblivious than you, so no, probably not."

"Wait," Sora said, his mind starting to race, "what do you mean _I'm_ oblivious?"

Kairi groaned, rubbing her face with a hand. "I really didn't think I'd have to spell it out for you like this," she muttered.

"Kairi _please_," Sora begged, pushing himself up to kneel in front of her. "Do you think Riku… likes me?"

"I'm pretty sure he's been in love with you his whole life."

"He's… no, no, that can't be true," Sora protested immediately, and his mind was definitely racing now. "He had a crush on you, didn't he? He used to be jealous of us, right?"

"Sure," Kairi agreed easily, and Sora almost hated how calm she was. "But he was jealous of _me_, not of you."

Sora sat back on his heels, every interaction he had had with Riku suddenly restructuring themselves in his brain. All the fights and races Sora had thought were meant to impress Kairi… were they actually meant to impress _him_ instead? "Why didn't he say anything?" Sora asked quietly, his eyes straying farther up the beach, where he knew Riku was resting.

"I told you," Kairi answered, matching Sora's tone and his gaze, "Riku's pretty oblivious, too. Probably just assumed he never had a chance." She turned to make eye contact with Sora, her gaze suddenly intense. "Was he right?"

Sora flinched back slightly at her look. "I'm not sure," he answered, honestly, but there was an unfamiliar warmth in his chest. "But I don't… think so."

Almost immediately, Kairi smiled again, the intensity disappearing as quickly as it had come. "Well then," she said, gesturing up the beach, "I think you two are due for a conversation."

"Right now?" Sora yelped, his eyes widening. "Kairi, I just figured out that I _might_ like Riku, and you want me to tell him right now?"

"Are you planning on telling him later?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"Maybe," Sora insisted, but at Kairi's glare he dropped his gaze to the sand. "Probably not."

Sighing, Kairi leaned forward and put her hands on his shoulders. "I promise you, Sora, this is the right move. And hey," she added, lifting his chin with a finger and grinning, "I can't think of a better way to make Riku start smiling more."

Unable to help himself now, Sora grinned back, and then pulled Kairi into a hug. "Thanks," he whispered, holding her tight.

"Of course," Kairi said, squeezing him right back. "Now go get your boy."

Jumping to his feet, Sora tossed her a mock salute and started to run up the beach, the sound of Kairi's laughter echoing behind him. His feet slowed and his step faltered, though, as he approached the tree where Riku was sitting. What if Kairi had completely misread the situation?

Getting closer, Sora was surprised to see that Riku wasn't actually asleep. "Hey," he called out, waving, "I thought you were napping!"

Riku looked up, and Sora could tell the instant he realized who was talking and forced a smile onto his face. "Thought you'd be down with Kairi a little longer."

Slowly, cautiously, Sora lowered himself onto the ground beside Riku. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Nah," Riku said, casual, but he lowered his head enough to let his hair fall into his face. "Haven't been sleeping much, really."

"Yeah," Sora sighed, leaning against the tree and looking up at the sky. "But it's… it's pretty incredible, you know?"

"What is?" Riku asked, looking over at him but not quite lifting his head.

"We won!" Sora said with a grin, throwing his hands into the air. "All of us, but you and me especially, we fought Xemnas and we _won_."

Riku smiled, softly, and something in Sora's chest fluttered. "Yeah," he agreed, "I guess we did."

There was quiet for a moment, and then Riku turned to him and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Sora startled a bit at the question. He had been lost in thought, trying to think of how to have the conversation that they needed to have. "Well," he started, and then paused again.

"Come on," Riku said, leaning over and nudging Sora with his shoulder. "It's just me here."

Sora couldn't help but grin at that. "That's… kind of what I'm thinking about," he admitted, after another moment of quiet. "At the end, with… with Xemnas and everything, it was just us." As the memories came back, Sora almost unconsciously pulled his knees into his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "Even after we defeated him, I thought…" He stopped, somehow finding it difficult now to say the words.

"You thought we were going to die there," Riku said, quiet. "On that beach."

"Yeah," Sora said, and tightened his grip around his legs. "And that was scary, that was _so_ scary, but I didn't mind as much as I thought I would, because… because you were there, too."

Riku blinked, seemingly taken aback, but didn't respond.

Sora turned his eyes away, focusing instead on his legs, and breathed, slowly, trying not to panic. "I've been feeling like that a lot, recently," he said, and his voice was stronger than he expected it to be. "The things we've been doing, the things we're probably gonna have to keep doing, they're scary and hard, but I don't mind them, as long as… as long as you're doing them with me."

Riku didn't respond, so Sora glanced over at him, nervous. He was still just staring, surprised but not responding, and Sora started to worry that maybe he wasn't being clear enough, maybe Riku didn't know what he was trying to say, maybe…

"I love you!" Sora blurted, and then immediately smacked both of his hands over his mouth.

Riku's jaw dropped.

"I mean," Sora backtracked, his hands flailing around uncontrollably. "I mean, um, I like you a lot and I think you're really cute and, um." He stopped suddenly, and then dropped his head onto his knees with a groan. "I'm just going to stop talking now," he mumbled, not caring if Riku heard him or not.

There was another moment of silence, during which Sora reconsidered every decision he had ever made, and then, suddenly, he felt a soft touch on his shoulder.

"Hey," said Riku, and when Sora looked up at him, he looked almost… hopeful? "Did you… did you mean that? What you said?"

"I did," Sora said, and this time he didn't back down from it. "You're the most important person in the world, in _all_ the worlds. You mean everything to me, Riku."

It felt weird, being that open and clear about things, but to Sora's surprise, Riku grinned, and there was a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Yeah, I got that part," he said, "but do you really think I'm cute?"

Sora sat frozen for a moment, but then a laugh bubbled out of him. "You jerk," he laughed, reaching over and shoving Riku lightly. "I'm spilling all my feelings here, and that's all you have to say?"

"Sorry," Riku said, but his smile said that he wasn't really sorry at all. "You, uh, surprised me a little bit with that."

Suddenly nervous again, Sora rubbed at the back of his neck. "Was it… too much? If you want to just forget this ever happened, that's okay with me." It wasn't, really, but the only thing worse than Riku rejecting this would be if it ruined their friendship completely.

Riku was still grinning. "Nah," he said, casual, as if they were discussing the weather or the waves or their plans for the day, "I think you're cute, too."

Instantly, Sora could feel his face heat up. "Huh," he said, more to himself than Riku, "I guess Kairi was right."

"Kairi?" Riku exclaimed, his eyes suddenly wide again, the grin wiped from his face. "Did you talk to _Kairi_ about this?"

"She just gave me a little encouragement!" Sora protested, and then he tried desperately to get the conversation back on track. "Encouragement to say the thing that you _still haven't responded to!_"

Riku laughed, but suddenly there was no humor in it. "What do you want me to say? I've liked you for _years_, Sora, I didn't think I needed to spell it out for you."

Sora gestured emphatically at him, his voice rising in tone and pitch. "No, see, that's what Kairi said too, and it surprised me then, and I still don't…" He paused, sighing, all of the energy suddenly seeping out of him. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"What was I supposed to say?" Riku asked, and there was so much sadness in his voice, any trace of the humor and the smile wiped away as if they had never been there in the first place. "You and Kairi were…"

"I know," Sora said, stopping him. "I mean, we weren't, um, anything. Kairi used to like me, and maybe I liked her, but I think… I think I only liked her because it felt like I had to." He paused, running a hand through his hair. "But after… after the door, and everything that first time, I could've gone home to Kairi, but I _couldn't_, because I knew you were still out there. That's when I realized it, I think."

"Oh," Riku said, quiet.

"Yeah."

There was quiet, again, and Sora started fidgeting. He didn't know how he expected this conversation to go, but he thought it would be… Different. Not this.

"I'm sorry," Riku said, suddenly, and Sora jumped. "I've had a crush on you for years and you finally tell me you feel the same way and _this_ is how I respond?"

"It's not what I expected," Sora admitted, laughing a little bit nervously.

Riku sighed, lowering his head and letting his hair cover his face, and Sora knew that he was trying to cover up any emotions he was having. "I'm trying to be better," he said, so quiet that Sora had to strain to hear him, "but it still doesn't feel like I… deserve this."

"Riku," Sora said, his heart breaking.

"Why now?" Riku asked, finally looking at him. "Sora, the past two years have been… I've hurt so many people, including you and Kairi. Why would. Why do you like _me_?"

"Riku," Sora said again, but his voice was stronger now, more confident. "Riku, the past year is a big part of _why_ I like you! You were manipulated and used and you could've stayed in that place but you fought your way out of it, all on your own! You've been so strong and you're so _kind_ and you've worked so hard to be better, and it's incredible. I'm… I'm proud of you, Riku, and I want to be with you as you keep working and growing and just. Being who you are."

"Oh," Riku said again, and Sora had the feeling he really didn't have any other words to say.

"I know this is a lot," Sora said quickly, "and, um, we can deal with things as slowly as you want to, or we can ignore them for a while, or…"

Riku breathed, in and out, slowly and deliberately, and then he lifted his head to look Sora in the eye. "I love you, too," he said, quiet but strong, the smallest smile on his face, cheeks flushed red from the sunburn, but maybe from something else, too.

Sora's face split into a grin so wide it almost hurt, and he threw his arms into the air and hollered with joy.

Riku laughed, bright and true, the bitterness and grief gone from his face. "You're an idiot," he said, and his smile wasn't as big as Sora's, but the joy was the same.

"Maybe," Sora said, jumping to his feet and reaching out both hands to pull Riku up with him, "but now I'm _your_ idiot."

Riku rose easily with Sora's help, their hands interlocked. "Yeah," he said, quiet again, looking down at Sora's face, "you are."

Sora felt warm all over, his eyes locked on Riku's, and it was almost without thinking that he rose onto his toes and, closing his eyes, pressed his lips to Riku's.

Riku melted immediately, releasing his grip on Sora's hands and reaching up to put a hand on Sora's cheek instead, kissing him back.

They pulled apart slowly, their foreheads pressed together, both smiling. "I, uh, feel like I should've done that a while ago," Sora said, sheepish.

"Maybe," Riku agreed easily, kissing Sora on the nose and making him blush. "But we can make up for lost time, I think."

And, in the time that they had before the world needed saving again, they did exactly that.


End file.
